Are you content with your life? Even when you are feeling at your worst, God is showing you more mercy than you deserve through the sacrifice of his Son, Jesus – and that’s reason enough to be content!
Hey, let me ask you something: how content are you with your life?
Well, hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and let me describe how Dana would answer that question, ’cause on the outside, she appears to have it all together. She’s active in her local church, is single, has a great career, but on the inside, she feels totally detached from her church. She shows up on Sunday mornings and at other events, but before she gets out of her car, she’s got to rally her senses, paste on a smile, and muster the courage to face other Christians. She rarely admits it, but she is lonely and even disenchanted with her work. Everybody else admires Dana and she struggles hard to keep up the pretense. All of it takes an enormous amount of energy, making her bleak feelings worse. A few years ago, Dana had envisioned a different kind of life for herself. She thought she’d be married by this time and be raising children, but that’s not how it turned out. And so, she’s looking for love in all the wrong places, which, when she returns home at night, only brings on more blues. All this while she names Jesus as her Lord and Savior.
You know, Dana is not her real name, but she is a real person, and there are thousands of Christians like her. They struggle to cope with the lot in life God has given them, but every morning, they wake up feeling restless and discontent. They wish things were different and can’t help but compare themselves with others who seem to have it better. And it’s not uncommon. Many of us are not content with our station in life. We want more. We want things to be easier. We fall prey to the lie that life could and should be better. But that’s not the worst lie. The bigger lie is that we feel we deserve better, and that’s where Christians get into deep trouble, because when you start nurturing the thought that you deserve better, you are basically saying that you know what’s best and God does not, that God’s plan for you is really no plan at all, it’s a bad plan. Christians who coddle a restlessness about life interpret God’s will as a personal attack on them, rather than a merciful gift.
Believe me, I used to think like that. When I got landed with paralysis, when I realized my wheelchair was a permanent thing, when all my friends got married and started having children, I felt as though God’s plan for me wasn’t fair. I mean, I was a good Christian. I deserved better. But somewhere along the line I took a reality check, because I said I believed that sinners deserve hell. As a Christian, I had said that I deserved hell, so how could I complain?! If I really believed that, without Christ, that I should be in hell, how could I insist that I deserved a better life? Having this perspective, my paralysis could even now be considered a mercy. Sure, I was doing life in a wheelchair, but that was a whole lot better than being burnt toast in outer darkness. So even when we are feeling at our worst, God is showing us more mercy than we deserve. And right there’s the answer. We deserve nothing, but God has graciously given us everything, all things, even Jesus and his gift of eternal life. And that’s the reason enough to be content, reason enough even for Dana.
Her restlessness with God’s will in her life has led Dana into serious depression. John Piper speaks about this kind of depression in his book When the Darkness Will Not Lift, and I’d like to give you a free copy; just ask for it today. Supplies are limited, so do it today at joniradio.org. Learn how to be satisfied with the hard things in your life. Reach out to us today at joniradio.org because I love sharing hope in your hardship.
© Joni and Friends